Capsule Review: 2015 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid

Capsule Review: 2015 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid -

All you see here is painfully normal. Much of what you can not see is delightfully whimsical.

Take easily forgotten and forgettable Acura RLX Sport Hybrid in a RLX involves the use of a transmission with seven double-clutch transmission cooperative, front-mounted electric motor, and an all wheel drive system bit Orthodox who takes advantage of two electric motors, one at each rear wheel

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• Have Tested USD Price :. $ 66,870

• Total System Power: 377 @ 6400 rpm

• observed fuel economy: 21.8 mpg

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It is unlikely that you are fascinated by the conservative RLX outside or in love with his unit or dual-screen infotainment for the way it engages reverse or slow delighted with his trunk shrunken, narrow sitting in the middle.

RLX Sport Hybrid But this Honda engineering prowess, and he does it in a way that is not imitated by other Honda product. The RLX Sport Hybrid has no new eight and nine-speed transmissions TLX, this is not a 2016 NSX powertrain-listening, and he does not hide the hybrid kit least one transmission mounted on the last Accord Hybrid. This is a set of "nuther thing. This is Honda is Honda.

Unfortunately, 2015 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid is not a big sports sedan, it is not very good service great car duties, and it is far from our expectations of fuel economy. The RLX Sport Hybrid is strangely amusing, strangely disappointing and strangely unpopular. Perhaps the RLX Sport Hybrid is simply strange. In itself, I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

However, it is clear that in a market perspective, this is simply not the way to do business. See, to make a point, we are inclined to say things that do not correspond to the distance to reality. "There is no person to buy Dodge Darts" Well, actually, there are 7000 buyers Dart in America each month. in the case of the RLX line, the same declaration lands much closer to the truth. Chronically unpopular, 32.5% year-over-year drop in sales in the United States RLX translated less than 300 monthly sales in 2014. These numbers Porsche Cayman-like a car that competes in a category where cars, even in mid-pack like the Audi A6 generate sales of 2,000 per month.

of course, one could argue that the exclusivity of the RLX Sport Hybrid adds a cool factor to the equation. It is a rare version of a car that refused observers do not understand. (Or probably even review.)

the rear electric motors add power to an already fast car and provide a form of four-wheel steering that causes RLX be discarded without understeer in a corner-with immediacy. All-wheel drive cars suffer from torque steer, as hybrid sport, create a discomfort in my measure RWD-loving soul - torque is for Saturn Ion Red Lines, not refined luxury sedans - and feel is compounded because the RLX is a bastion of the total traction in the snow. Nevertheless, with judicious use of heavy gases, the RLX Sport Hybrid is proving to be a back-road burner able, allowing a surprising degree of additional accelerator application as it makes its way through a corner, feeling more and more like a much smaller car than it is.

Brake feel is not as predictable as you want, something we've come to expect in most hybrids. And in the RLX Sport Hybrid, management lifeless is the usual sign witness, regardless of its towers, you are still driving a 4354 car pounds. Yet seen as a big car with sports references, the RLX provides a bit of fun when called to do so, just not the level of aggression that can be encountered, for example, the latest Cadillac CTS Vsport.

from the standpoint of refinement, RLX is quiet but not as serene disarming on rough roads you have taken a heavy car with a wheelbase of 112 inches would. Perhaps the low profile Michelin X-Ice (245 / 40R19) Winter rubber is to blame for the marginal loss of tranquility.

Compared to the TLX we looked at Christmas, there is more peace inside the car, such as heated seats are controlled by a classic button front of the other-for-the -sake-of-difference shifter. Rather than operate frustrating screens - the lower one with the fingers; highest with controls mounted below the bottom screen - to call the basic controls, the RLX allowed me to turn on the cold car and presses a button, without waiting period for a computer to come to the life. Ah, the pleasures of winter.

Even the driver who forgives modern Acura RLX its dashboard layout will not enjoy the benefits of the large-car life. At 196.1 inches long, the RLX is only five inches shorter than a Chevrolet Impala; it is six inches longer than own Acura TLX. But the rear seat is built for two, as the central hump the floor is almost as high as the seat cushion itself, and the middle of the seat cushion is perched too high above positions outboard for all kind of comfort. The occupants of window seats are blessed with generous space, but the Sport Hybrid feels like a four-seater. The trunk, meanwhile, was shot decent 14.9 cubic feet of regular RLX a tiny 11.6 cubic feet, 6% less than the capacity in the trunk of a small sedan ILX Acura. Cross-country travel for five? No way. For four? Perhaps, but do not put too much extra pairs of underwear.

of less importance to the well-heeled buyer of the current car's most expensive Acura (but surely some interest for hybrid buyers?) Was disappointing mileage returned by our tester RLX Sport Hybrid his one week stay. The car, provided to us by Honda Canada, is rated by the EPA at 28 mpg city and 32 on the highway. With very cold weather, winter tires, and a mix of city / highway driving, we measured 21.8 mpg. Not bad for a really fast car, but well below expectations.

With the Acura disdain for the design made its flagship sedan with a semblance of style being the worst drawbacks of the RLX Sport Hybrid, I gradually enjoyed driving the car more as the week went. But with extremely comfortable seats, 377 horses, lively turn inspired by the high level of equipment Integra Type-R, and no question of nosy neighbors who probably did not even notice the car parked in our driveway, why not me ?

Again, I do not pay the $ 66,870 asking price $, which is probably too much for a wallflower in a complete class attention grabbers. Acura must allow its designers to exercise their artistic talent in the same way their R & D personnel should concoct compositions powertrain. Marry the best of these two ministries, especially if the car is really capable of producing as much power with fuel consumption ratings indicated, and they sell a lot more than a handful each month.

As it stands, there is no person to buy this thing right now.

Timothy Cain is the founder of GoodCarBadCar.net , who is obsessed with the free and frequent publication of US and Canadian sales figures auto.